The Department of Education (DepEd) failed to meet its self-imposed target this month of giving the country’s more than half a million public school teachers their bonuses remaining from last year.

A senior official explained the DepEd had not yet completed its performance evaluation report to be submitted to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) because a few hundred schools still had not submitted their performance reports.

The DepEd is also being made to justify why its nearly 600,000 teaching and nonteaching personnel are entitled to the performance-based bonus (PBB) which ranges from P5,000 to P35,000.

The DepEd has to show that it has complied with the performance targets set by Malacañang for all government agencies to be entitled to the bonus.

Last December, government employees did not receive their full P10,000 yearend bonus that is traditionally given across the board to augment their Christmas bonus.

The DBM instead released only P5,000 as “performance enhancement incentive (PEI),” with the promise of a separate performance-based bonus (PBB).

The DBM said the PBB would range from P5,000 for good performing employees in a good performing agency, up to P35,000 for the best performing employees in the best performing agencies.

“The evaluation is ongoing considering the size of the (DepEd) bureaucracy,” Assistant Secretary for Planning Jesus Mateo said Friday when asked about the delay.

“We have received more than 90 percent of school submissions but this has to be validated. We do not want to leave behind those who have not yet submitted their report,” he added.

The DepEd earlier announced it would distribute the bonuses before the start of classes this month based on guidelines that Secretary Armin Luistro issued on Feb. 28.

According to the guidelines, the teachers’ bonuses would be computed based on their school’s performance and not on their individual performance. A school’s performance will be measured by three indicators: The National Achievement Test (NAT) results, the dropout rate, and the school’s liquidation of its maintenance, operating and other expenses (MOOE).

Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of INQUIRER.net. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.